Recipe: Home Cooked Maple-Cured Smoked Bacon

Pork belly is now easily found in area grocery stores, and that's the delivery vehicle for making your own bacon at home. It's a seven-day process, but surprisingly easy to do.

Photo: Carlos Javier Sanchez /Contributor

5 pounds pork belly, skin attached

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup kosher salt

2 teaspoons pink curing salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

Instructions: Pat the pork belly down with paper towels, removing as much moisture as possible.

Mix sugar, kosher salt and pink curing salt in a small bowl. Rub maple syrup on both sides of the pork belly, and apply seasoning mixture evenly to both sides of the belly, including the sides of the meat.

Place skin-side down in a 2-gallon Ziploc bag or a nonreactive container just slightly bigger than the meat. (The pork will release water into the salt mixture, creating a brine; it’s important that the meat keeps in contact with this liquid throughout the curing process.).

Refrigerate, turning the belly and redistributing the cure every other day, for 7 days, until the meat is firm to the touch.

Remove the belly from the cure, rinse it thoroughly, and pat it dry. Place it on a rack set over a baking sheet tray and dry in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 12 to 24 hours.

Hot-smoke the pork belly (belly-side down) at approximately 200-225 degrees with wood of choice (hickory, oak and fruit woods work well) until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees, about 3 hours. Let cool slightly, and when the belly is cool enough to handle but still warm, cut the skin off by sliding a sharp knife between the fat and the skin, leaving as much fat on the bacon as possible. (Discard the skin or cut it into pieces and save to add to soups, stews or beans, as you would a smoked ham hock.)

Let the bacon cool, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate or freeze it until ready to slice and use.